instead of a rooster

So I've always loved the 4th of July over most holidays and this is just another reason why:

This is Ben. The coolest 2 year old I've ever met who also happens to be my cousin, AND who's birthday also happens to be the 5th of July. For the past two years we've taken the entire weekend to celebrate both events in St. Louis and each year, it just keeps getting better. Ben was all about his Pooh Bear cake this year. He had been talking about this cake sense the moment we arrived and was so excited when he saw it for the first time that he tried to hug it. People may say that the 2's are terrible, but secretly, I think they are my favorites. I'm a sucker for mischievous little boys, and let me tell you, when it comes to mischief this one has my heart and takes the cake (no pun intended) =)


Oh and do I have a story for you! You know those odd little things that occasionally and abruptly cause you to wake up way too early in the morning from time to time. Well do I have a story for you! To make things even better, this has not happened just once.

This morning I was enjoying not having to wake up to an alarm clock. I was blissfully sleeping and mid-dream when I woke up suddenly to what sounded like a power drill going to town on the rafter in my bedroom ceiling. After I recovered from the shock of such a brutal wake-up and investigated the situation, I realized that was not a power drill and it was not the rafter in my bedroom ceiling. Oh no, it was the all too familiar sound of the beastly carpenter bee that has chosen the inside of my bedroom wall as his newest construction site. He has actually been hard at work for the past two summers now. I didn't even think that a bee's life could last that long! I suspect that he gained access to this site through my attic. I've investigated the attic several times trying to find him with no success. Generally bugs and insects do not bother me, but this morning I would have loved to get a hold of that little creep and I would not have released him outdoors! Lucky for him I was unsuccessful.

Seriously though. . . This happens on a daily basis now. He begins the drilling each morning around 7:40 at which time I am abruptly awoken begin contemplating all the ways to kill him. I am generally not violent towards insects in the least. When I find them indoors I'm the one that lets them out through the window or takes them to the garden. Something about this darn bee has seriously brought out the worst in me.

No need for alarm clocks or roosters here! I have a carpenter bee.

But you know what, he can just drill till his little heart's content this weekend because. . .

We'll be staying on a friend's houseboat over the weekend. I'm so excited to just relax with friends and be on the water and I've never experienced this whole houseboat thing before. The only activities on our agenda are swimming, eating, laying in the sunshine (with plenty of SPF of course), and late-night board games. I'm pretty pumped!